The insurer is entitled to raise any legal or factual ground in the appeal, not limited to those specified in S. 96(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

( 1 ) IN this appeal under S. 110-D of the Motor Vehicles Act, an award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has been challenged by the Insurance Company as well as the owner of the vehicle in a joint appeal.

( 2 ) A preliminary objection has been taken as to the maintainability of the appeal on the ground that a joint appeal by the insurer and the insured is not legally maintainable. It is also urged that no award having been made against the owner of the vehicle. he was not a person aggrieved and as such was not entitled to file the appeal. The claimants learned counsel seeks support to his submission from a Division Bench decision of this Court in United India Fire and General Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Gulab Chandra Gupta, 1985 Acc CJ 245. In that case, two appeals had been filed against the award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal under which the entire amount was made payable by the insurer. One appeal was filed jointly by the owner of the vehicle and the Insurance Company while the other appeal had been filed by the owner of the vehicle alone. The appeal filed by the owner was dismissed on the ground that he was not an aggrieved person since the entire amount payable under the award was to be paid by the Insurance Company only. The joint appeal was also dismissed relying upon Kanti Lal v. Rama Rani Debi, 1980 Acc CJ 501 where a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had held that a joint appeal was not maintainable. The Bench of this Court also observed that in view of British India General Insurance Company v. Capt. Itbar Singh, (1958) 65 ACJ 1, the Insurance Company was not entitled to challenge the award on any ground other than those contained in S. 96 (2) of the Act.

( 3 ) THE learned counsel for the appellant, however, submits that both the points raised by way of preliminary objection are not sustainable and the contentions are against the provisions of the Act.

( 4 ) AS far as the question of filing a joint appeal is concerned, there is no provision which bars the filing of such an appeal jointly by the insurer and the insured. Objection to them can be taken only on the general principle that there should not be any conflict of interest between the two appealing parties. It is only in those cases in which the ground on the basis of which the judgment of the court below is challenged is common to both the appellants and there is no inherent conflict in their interest that a joint appeal may be permissible. However, if it appears that the interest of the insurer and the insured may come in conflict while granting relief, then certainly the courts discretion must go against the filing of a joint appeal. When the owner of a vehicle and the insurer join hands in filing an appeal, their interest may be common only to a particular extent i. e. the immediate liability which the insurer is liable to undertake under S. 95 of the Motor Vehicles Act. If, however, the claim of the insured is being challenged on the ground of any defect in the contract of insurance or where the insurer takes refuge in avoiding its liability on any of the terms of the contract, then in such an event their interest can not be co-extensive and are likely to come in conflict with each other. In such a situation, therefore, the two can not be allowed to file a joint appeal.

( 5 ) IN the instant case, there is another aspect which cannot be lost sight of. The owner of the vehicle did not choose to contest the claim before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and the matter proceeded ex parte against him. The award which has been given is only against the insurer as it is less than Rs. 50,000/- and the entire liability for paying the compensation has to be indemnified by the Insurance Company. In these circumstances it is difficult to accept the appellants contention that the owner of the vehicle was a person aggrieved so as to entitle him to file an appeal.

( 6 ) UNDER S. 110-D, an appeal against the award of the Claims Tribunal ca